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submitted 1 year ago by 0x815@feddit.de to c/news@beehaw.org
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[-] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 58 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Reminds me of how Trump has been going after wind farms for a long time. He claims they're noisy and they're killing all the birds. (He began saying this when Scotland wanted to place Wind farms near his Scottish golf resort)

[-] Onihikage@beehaw.org 34 points 1 year ago

It's almost silly to look into bird deaths and realize just how low wind power is on the list, even with its rapid growth in recent years. It was recently estimated that with the expected growth of wind power, it will be killing about 2.2 million birds a year in the US... in 2050. Meanwhile, power lines kill anywhere from 12 to 48 million a year right now, fossil-fueled power plants kill as many as 14 million a year right now, communication towers kill over 5 million, cars 60-80 million, pesticides as much as 90 million, and cats well over a billion. Every year. The numbers aren't that hard to find. Replacing all fossil-fueled power plants with wind turbines would be a net positive for bird populations, and the facts make that very clear.

https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/08/22/pecking-order-energys-toll-on-birds
https://www.energymonitor.ai/tech/renewables/weekly-data-how-many-birds-are-really-killed-by-wind-turbines/

[-] perdido@lemmy.eco.br 20 points 1 year ago

If they actually cared about birds they'd shut up about wind power and try to get rid of cats instead

[-] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Like Bob Barker said, spay and neuter your pets.

[-] blindsight@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

And keep your cats indoors!! Outdoor cat pets should be illegal.

(Maybe there's a case for farm cats keeping vermin population in check? I don't know enough to have an opinion on that.)

[-] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 1 year ago

What an idiot, birds aren't even real.

[-] ginerel@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Problem was that they are government agents/drones/whatever and this is costly for the government

[-] ampersandrew@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

They did have an effect on birds though. I think it was almost entirely mitigated by painting one blade black, if memory serves, but it was based on some truth.

[-] middlemuddle@beehaw.org 18 points 1 year ago

Please don't give their statement any credibility without adding the important context. Based in some truth may be technically accurate, but when compared to all the other possible causes of bird death it's basically inconsequential.

https://www.fws.gov/library/collections/threats-birds

If there's a solution, such as painting one blade a different color, then great. We can leave it up to the turbine engineers and wildlife agencies to address it, it doesn't need to be part of any news cycle. Giving their outlandish claim any air at all lends it far too much weight.

this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
436 points (100.0% liked)

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